…at Kate.
31 KATE
Kate dove backwards onto the porch. Jason’s swing went wide and missed her. The edge of the sword bit into the front door and lodged in the wood. Kate stumbled away, backing onto the lawn.
“I’m sorry,” Jason said. “God, I’m sorry.”
Jason pulled the sword from the wood and threw it down, raising his hands to show he was unarmed.
“You could have killed me,” she said.
“I – I didn’t know it was you.”
“Who, then?” She was soaked now. She spat her hair out of her mouth. “Well?” she said, climbing back onto the shelter of the porch. She picked up her closed umbrella, ready to defend herself if necessary, and put one shoe on the sword.
“I had an intruder,” he said.
“A burglar?”
“No,” Jason said. He hesitated, scratched the back of his head and broke into a grin. “A squirrel,” he blurted.
“A squirrel.”
“Yeah. I chased it all over the house and… what can I say? They make me crazy.”
“You were chasing a squirrel with a sword,” she said, her voice dripping with mockery. Better than anger, he decided – and much better than explaining his urgent need for Ghostbusters.
“It was a pretty big squirrel,” he said. “A super-squirrel.”
She shook the umbrella. “A super-squirrel.”
“A Jurassic monster squirrel with – fangs – and… it could have fought Godzilla.”
“So. You had a… Mothra-level squirrel,” she said.
Jason nodded.
“Mecha-squirrel,” he said, raising claws.
She leaned on the umbrella handle.
“Really?” she said.
Jason nodded. “Bite your head off, lady.”
She bent and picked up the sword. “Let’s just put this away,” she said.
“Good idea.”
She watched Jason as they entered the house. Maybe half-expecting him to pull a chainsaw next? He found the scabbard on the floor and gave it to her. She slid the sword into it, and closed the front door behind them.
“Do you have any… lights?” Kate said.
“Actually, no. No lights.” He took the sword and put it in the closet.
“So we’ll just hang out in the dark?”
Jason hoped that Kate couldn’t see his expression. Hanging out with her in the dark didn’t sound half bad. “The fuses,” he muttered. “They’re blown.”
Kate nodded. She touched a switch and the lights came on.
“Oh,” said Jason.
“Oh.”
Stupid stupid stupid.
“Towel,” she said.
“What?”
“Towel? I’m dripping.”
“Oh, um… one second.”
He bounded through the kitchen and into the utility room. He dove into the laundry and came up with an orange beach towel. He brought it to her.
“They just want shelter from the rain, you know,” Kate said.
“Who?” said Jason.
“Squirrels.”
She dried herself in the kitchen, looking around. Rain stippled in through the shattered back window. Muddy footprints soiled the tile and hardwood. The charred remains of the birthday card lay in the sink, and the water still ran.
“Looks like Godzilla lost,” said Kate.
“It was nuts.” Jason immediately regretted the pun. He turned off the water and grabbed the burnt birthday card. It croaked out one final “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” on the way to the trashcan.
“Are you going somewhere?” said Kate.
“No,” he said. “Why?”
“Okay, then are you building a fort?”
“Oh, those. The boxes. Yeah. I wanted to put away my grandmother’s, you know – things.”
“Right,” she said. “I had thought I’d better check up on you.”
“Thanks. That’s great,” he said. And he meant it.
Kate put the towel over her head, drying her hair. He risked a glance. Her clothes were soaked through, all right. He could see her…
“Eyes up here, mister,” she said, tossing the towel at him. She’d caught him looking again. He remembered the first time he’d seen Kate, slipping into Zef’s car the night of the dance. She’d caught him looking then, too. Did she set these traps on purpose? And had he failed the test or passed it?
But the towel reminded him of something else –
“Oh, hey,” he said. “I have to – uh – ”
“What?”
“Take a leak,” he said.
She frowned.
“Take care of a leak.” Stupid stupid stupid. He held up the towel. “I have a leak. Just – stay here?”
He ran through the living room and up the stairs. Kate followed him. But his room was dry. The water wasn’t bleeding in anymore. The stain above was almost too faint to be seen.
“Where’s the leak?” said Kate.
Jason ran up to the attic. It was dry and dusty as ever.
“It was pouring in bad,” Jason said, returning to the bedroom, “I swear.”
“I believe you,” said Kate.
She noticed the cut on Jason’s finger. It still bled, just a little. “What happened?” she said.
Jason couldn’t honestly remember.
She rolled her eyes. “Don’t tell me. Squirrel.”
He nodded.
“I’ll get you a Band-Aid,” she said. She walked to his bathroom and he hoped desperately that everything was, well, flushed.
He saw his backpack on the floor. He tore it open. Agathe’s book was okay. He tucked it in the nightstand. The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon was okay too.
“What’s that?” said Kate, returning.
“It’s a first edition of The Legend. Eliza gave it to me.”
“Nice gift,” Kate said.
She joined him on the bed.
“Hey. Did I thank you?” Jason said.
“For?”
“For staying with me? At the hospital?”
“You did, sir.” She made him hold his finger out and wrapped the Band-Aid around it.
“Thank you again. That was nice of you.”
“All done,” she said. She leaned down and kissed his fingertip.
They sat in silence. She’d been kissing the boo-boo to make it better, that’s all. But the room became… fraught…. Jason felt that they had both become aware of the room, that it was his bedroom, that they were horny teenagers on his bed, and that there were no adults in the house. He could hardly think of anything else.
Kate slipped from the bed and onto the floor. She leaned back on her hands and he immediately thought that the floor might be nice too. He joined her. She backed off as he sat – a little farther away than he’d hoped – stopping, framed in Jason’s windows.
“Thank you for rescuing me,” said Jason.
“It’s only a Band-Aid,” said Kate.
“No. In the maze. At the Hollow. I was in bad shape.”
“I saw you freaking out.”
“And – how did you know?” he said.
“Know what?”
“You said – ” Jason hesitated. “You said, ‘Is it your Gift? You can’t control your Gift?’ How did you know?”
The window had fogged. Kate wrote “Jason’s Room” on the center pane. She added a smiley. She glanced at him and wiped the smiley out, absent-mindedly.
“Your Gift is in your hands, right?” she said.
He nodded.
“So why aren’t you wearing your gloves?”
“I – ”
“Where are they?”
“On the dresser.”
She fetched the gloves. “You should wear them,” she said. “All the time. At least at first. Not now. Not over your Band-Aid but – tie them to your sleeves or something so you don’t forget them again.”
He nodded.
“And if you lose them, use your fingers to touch things,” she
said. “That’s usually okay. Just not your palm.” She returned to the window and sat again. The back porch light made the rain on the window look like fireworks behind her. “What have you been seeing?” she said.
“The past. Things that happened.”
“Visions? Off objects?”
He nodded. “And people sometimes.”
“That’s called psychometry,” she said.
“I read that. On the internet.”
“It’s not common. It’s pretty rare, actually.”
“And how do you know that?” Jason said.
She held up her own hands. “I see too.”
“You see? What?”
She rolled her eyes, embarrassed. “The future,” she said.
“You’re kidding.”
“I wish,” she said. “It can be a pain. I see flashes. Potentials. No lottery numbers.”
Lightning lit behind her. “But, yeah, I have a Gift too.”
“So – we’re alike,” said Jason.
A soft rumbling thunder answered.
She shrugged. “Opposites, I guess. You see back, I see ahead. But yeah.”
Jason grinned. “So where’re your gloves?”
“Me? I can handle my gift.”
“Oh, you can?”
“Yeah. I’m not a clueless newbie.”
Jason threw a pillow at her for that. She dodged it and scowled in mock outrage.
“It’s true,” she said. “You don’t know anything, do you?”
“No.”
“Your parents never told you?”
Jason hugged his knees. “They died when I was seven,” he said.
“Oh.” Kate smoothed the pillow in her lap. “I didn’t know. See, it runs in families.”
“Why?”
“It just does. I got mine from my mother. She saw. Pretty accurately. At least short-term. She saw her cancer coming. Two years before the diagnosis. She stopped going out, stopped having fun. She decided – ‘What’s the point?,’ I guess.” Kate looked out the window. “You should know – these Gifts can be awful.”
“I think my father had this thing,” Jason said. “And my grandfather. I saw them wearing gloves in old pictures.”
“That makes sense.”
“It does? I think it’s crazy.”
“No. Every generation inherits the Gift – at least the potential for it – all the way back to your Founder.”
“You lost me.”
“Your Founder is the person who developed the gift first. Someone somewhere in your family line. For you, I’m guessing Ichabod.”
Jason looked at his hands.
“How would I inherit this from Ichabod?”
She came closer, and Jason felt his heart speed a little. She sat her elbow on the pillow in her lap, challenging Jason to arm wrestle.
“Afraid I’ll beat you?” she said.
He reached for her hand but she drew it back.
“Put your glove on first.”
“Why?”
“I’m – a little worried about us touching,” she said.
Jason wasn’t worried about them touching, not at all, but he put the glove on as ordered and took her hand in an arm-wrestling position.
“Okay. You’re Ichabod,” she said, “and I’m the spirit world.”
“The what?”
Kate slammed his arm down.
“You lose,” she said. “You got targeted by a ghost and it killed you. Try again.”
Jason frowned. This time she pressed and he pressed back. He still wavered though. Kate was strong.
“Feel that?” she said.
“What?”
“The struggle?”
Jason nodded. They both trembled. She smelled good.
“That’s your soul fighting the ghost,” she said.
“Okay. I’m fighting the ghost.”
“ – and it gets stronger. And if you win…” She relaxed. Jason swung her arm down onto the pillow. Their forearms pressed together for one maddening second. “…If you win, or survive, you still keep the… strength that you built up. Like a spiritual muscle.”
She squeezed his bicep. He flexed so it would seem more impressive.
“And that’s how a Founder gets his gift,” she said.
“Because Ichabod was targeted and survived – ”
“He came out of it seeing visions. And he passed that Gift along.”
“To me.”
“Yeah. To his kids if they were born after. Then to all his direct descendants. And it makes sense, doesn’t it?”
“What?”
“That your gift would be… a scholar’s gift? A schoolmaster’s? A gift for…”
“History,” Jason said.
She nodded. And there it was, the underlying pattern of Jason’s life. The explanation for his curiosity, his love of the past, his ability to see beneath. He’d inherited the soul of a schoolmaster. He’d inherited his ancestor’s Gift for… for knowledge.
“You in there?” Kate said. “I feel like I’ve lost you.”
“If there are ghosts – spirits – how do they target people? Can they think?”
“Most can’t. Only the really really strong ones. Most are just… needles on a record, doing the same things over and over. Like most people, I guess.”
“Wait – could a ghost… possess someone?”
“If it’s strong enough. But the host wouldn’t be Gifted after. Not unless they drove it out.”
Jason nodded. He felt joy rising in him for the first time in days. He had not been mistaken about Kate. They had to be together. They were alike. He could talk to her. She understood – much more than he did. And damn she was beautiful sitting on his bedroom floor with fireworks behind her. He removed his glove, held out a hand to her.
“Show me.”
“Show you my Gift?”
“I’ll show you mine,” Jason said and bit his lip.
“Oh, you will?”
“Just show me,” he said. “What’s my future?”
She reached for him, but stopped.
“What’s the matter?” he said. He reached for her hand but she pulled it away.
“What happened to us on the dance floor?” she said.
“I don’t know. It was – intense. And I wanted to apologize. I don’t know what I did, if it was me.”
She nodded. “I never felt anything like it. Whatever you did it scared me. Bad.” She took a deep breath, deciding. “Okay.” She took his hand and closed her eyes. Jason closed his too. They sat holding hands as the rain fell. She pulled away, frowning and shook her head.
“What?” Jason said, “Was it bad?”
“No, no. I didn’t see anything. You’re dark to me,” she said, “but I haven’t had one single vision since the dance. Not one. You know, I’m starting to get worried. It’s like I’m burned out.”
Jason thought of the light bulb in Eliza’s room. He remembered his own vision. Of Kate walking up the aisle to him.
“Did you see anything, the night of the dance?” he said.
She chewed her index finger.
“I think – I saw you,” she said. “As a little boy. Random images. I don’t know. Did you see anything?”
“I might have,” Jason said. “Future things.”
“What things?”
He shrugged. He didn’t want to say. He felt her withholding something too.
She leaned back on her hands again. “If you saw the future and I saw the past – could we have swapped Gifts for a second?”
“Can you do that?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “I don’t know everything.”
Jason had to ask. “If you can see the future,” he said, “does that mean you know, say, who you’re going to marry?”
“I think so,” she said. Her smile grew wider. She took her shoes off and rubbed her feet.
“Who?”
“Zef, of course. Why else do you think I put up with him?”
“Zef? But he’s �
� ”
“He’s what?”
“He’s Zef.”
“I saw it. I had a vision. The first time I kissed him.”
“Do I want to hear this?”
“It was third quarter at a Horsemen game, the first night he rented Gunsmoke from us. He and I brushed him, after, in the parking lot, waiting for Carlos to bring the trailer around. Zef still wore half his Horseman getup. The breeches and the boots. He was cute, so I kissed him.”
She looked away, a little embarrassed.
“It was a good kiss,” she said. “Eddie Martinez must have thrown a touchdown ’cause the crowd went wild and – ”
“Oh, I hate this story,” said Jason.
“Anyway, we kissed and I saw the future. I saw him in a suit, a blue suit with a grey tie. Waiting for me at the altar of the Old Dutch Church. How about that?”
That sucks. That’s how about that.
“Did you tell him?” Jason said, hoping she’d scare Zef off.
“Of course not. That might change the whole future. The future’s much trickier than the past. Besides – Zef doesn’t know what I can do.”
“You haven’t… come out to him?”
“Why do you look so weird? No. And you can’t tell him.” Her face darkened. She took hold of Jason by his sleeves. “Listen, have you told anyone about your Gift?”
He nodded. She gasped.
“Did you tell your grandmother?”
“No.”
“Good. I was afraid that – ”
“What?”
“Never tell anyone about your Gift if they don’t have a Gift themselves.”
“Why not?”
“It’s the first rule. The first thing your parents should have taught you. Maybe it’s a superstition, but I was taught that if you tell any outsider, bad things happen to them.”
“What things?”
“They die,” she said. “Everybody we tell dies.”
Jason withdrew and sat up on his haunches. This worried him. “How?” he said.
“I had a friend growing up,” said Kate. “Jill. She came from a supernatural family too – ”
“A what? Never mind,” said Jason. His ability to absorb and accept this stuff was maxing out.
“Jill could hear sounds from far away – that was her Gift. She told a girl at school what she could do. She wanted to show off. Well, the girl wanted proof, so Jill had the girl walk farther and farther down this hill – and the girl whispered and Jill shouted back whatever the girl said. And, finally, the girl was convinced that Jill had the Gift. That’s the point of no return. When they believe it.”
Sleepy Hollow: Rise Headless and Ride Page 28